In a press conference yesterday, Vice President Pence announced that of the 45 people tested on the cruise ship Grand Princess, 21 has been found to be infected with the coronavirus Covid-19. Of the 21, 19 were ship’s crew and two were passengers. The San Francisco bound ship had been held offshore in the Pacific pending the results of the testing.
He said that the ship would be moved to a “non-commercial port” this weekend. “All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said. “Those that need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those that require additional medical attention will receive it.”
There are more than 3,500 people aboard the Grand Princess — 2,422 guests and 1,111 crew members, Princess Cruises said. They represent 54 nationalities. Passengers on the ship first learned of the test results through the media. Overnight, the US Coast Guard delivered supplies by helicopter to the ship, which is still approximately 20 miles off San Francisco.
A passenger from the previous Grand Princess voyage to Mexico was infected with the coronavirus and died. Subsequently, a second passenger from the Mexican voyage has died and at least six others are sick with the virus.
Approximately, 60 passengers from the previous cruise stayed aboard the ship for the current cruise.
The first case of the coronavirus in Hawaii has been confirmed to be a recent passenger of the Grand Princess.
As to the procedure for dealing with the virus on the Grand Princess, the president has sent confused messages, saying, “I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault. And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either, ok? It wasn’t their fault either and they’re mostly Americans,” Trump said. But, he added, he would abide by what Pence and his team of “great experts” decide.
Further to my comment to the previous entry and regardless of what one may think of the Administration may one suggest this is not a time for sarcasm. Good people are working very hard to resolve a completely new and rather scary virus sweeping the World. If you have a solution I am sure they would be delighted to hear it. In the meantime move above the pettiness, drop the damn politics and try to wok together helping and caring for each other.
There was a meeting this afternoon in Port Everglades, FL by the VP and the State of Florida Administration with the CLIA.
The ships crews will have “enhanced” checks as will the arriving and departing passengers. All this will be helpful no doubt but again the petri dish atmosphere is not resolved by continuing the cruises themselves which are going to places which are unwilling to allow them port entry and landing permission.
Good Watch
There was no sarcasm whatsoever in the post. The only aspect that was darkly humorous was the statement by the president, which while profoundly ignorant and disturbing, was a verbatim quote.